Tag Archives: Ed Helms

LA-based Therapy Studios provided post production on Comedy Central’s new one-hour special, The Fake News With Ted Nelms, starring Ed Helms of The Daily Show, The Office and The Hangover fame.

Edited by Therapy’s Kristin McCasey and directed by The Director Brothers (a.k.a. Ryan McNeely and Josh Martin) of Humble, this special takes a satirical view of cable news, poking fun at the ridiculous state of current news “reporting.”

“Obviously, there are a lot of news organizations out there just making up a bunch of crap and calling it news. But unlike those others, we’re doing it better, faker and stupider. And we’re joking,” says Helms about the special.

McCasey worked on the edit closely with Helms and executive producers Mike Falbo and Nelson Walters to craft the comedic tone of the show.

How early did Therapy get involved in the project? How did you work with the client?Allegra Bartlett, Therapy’s Head of Production: Therapy was attached during the writing stages of the project. Kristin McCasey was brought on at the recommendation of the Director Brothers (with whom we had worked closely with on Comedy Central series, specials and many other projects). The Fake News team thought she, and Therapy, were a perfect fit for all of the post.

Therapy had also just finished a collaboration for Represent.us with the Director Brothers, which starred Ed Helms and Jack Black. It felt like it all just came together full circle for The Fake News, which was for both Ed Helms and Comedy Central. Ed and his producing partner, Mike Falbo, frequently came in to sit and collaborate with Kristin to craft the comedy of the show, and Ed was very hands on in the audio mix, color and final VFX for the show.

What gear did you use?Editor McCasey: We used Avid Media Composer for editing, Avid Pro Tools for audio post, Blackmagic Resolve for color and Autodesk Flame for finishing and VFX.

Did Comedy Central come to you because you were able to offer them soup to nuts services? Bartlett: Comedy Central didn’t come to us directly per se, but I think when the Director Brothers mentioned our name, Comedy Central was like “Ah, Therapy! We know those guys!” — this is because we had recently wrapped all of the post on a Comedy Central series. It was definitely an advantage to have all of the post happening out of Therapy. Margaret Ward, post producer, and Shannon Albrink, assistant editor, went above and beyond to keep everything moving forward towards delivery. Our previous relationships and experience with Comedy Central definitely helped us achieve a tight turnaround and efficient delivery, and a really funny, culturally-relevant show!

What was a challenge you had to overcome?McCasey: The challenge of the show was to create a realistic-looking parody of a current day news channel, which included commercials, promos for other shows and news packages, in addition to the actual multicam TFN show. Throughout the process, we collaborated with head writer Elliot Kalan as well as Ed and Mike to dial in the comedy as we translated it from script to film. Their guidance was invaluable, and we all enjoyed nuancing the jokes together in the edit bay. In the last couple weeks before delivery, Visual Creatures fine-tuned the graphic look of the show, and Therapy’s team of sound, color and VFX gave us the final polish that we needed to bring the show across the finish line.